


Five Times Victor Was Yuuri's Friend and One Time He Was His Boyfriend

by Kira_Dattei



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: AO3 FB Challenge, Canon Compliant, Developing Relationship, Friends to Lovers, Gap Filler, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-08-20
Packaged: 2019-06-17 14:51:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15463827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kira_Dattei/pseuds/Kira_Dattei
Summary: Yuuri spent years looking up to Victor Nikiforov. Now that he's with Victor every day, he's learning more than he ever imagined. Like how Victor makes a pretty great friend once you get to know him. Victor is great at working with and supporting him in things like his diet, his appearance, when they have language barriers, his skating, and the different people they are. Just like a good friend would. And then he learns more.





	1. A Friend in Dieting

**Author's Note:**

> And here we have my first time posting for this fandom. I'm still getting the feel for writing these guys and it's coming along great.
> 
> I wrote this for my AO3 Facebook group's July challenge and had to write a Friends to Lovers Trope fic, which I've never purposefully done. This is also a first for using the 5+1 format so I was pretty excited when that's how inspiration hit. I am updating this as I finish each part, mostly so I can at least get it started posting within the month.  
> I think it's also prudent to mention that I don't actually do anything on any social medias besides Facebook so I'm not entirely familiar with their format really outside general understanding of SM and how it's shown on the show. It shouldn't make much of a difference, but if it seems like it will, I'll look into it because I believe in research more than I avoid social media. ^_^  
> I hope you enjoy.

Yuuri was pretty sure it was alright to think his life wasn’t being completely fair right now.

After all, it wasn’t like he was making a big deal out of it, just acknowledging it internally while he ran his five miles before dinner.

That he was on a strict diet wasn’t the unfair part; he’d monitored his diet in a wide variety of severity over the years, especially since he was a teen and his body really started packing on pounds when he made poor diet choices. So, this was just the latest return to form on watching what he ate.

It wasn’t unfair that he had a workout routine designed to burn off the extra weight he was carrying around, a rather intense workout regiment if he was completely honest and a bit harsher than he’d had to put himself through in years. It was only to be expected that he’d have to put in the work to make up for the laziness that had been the cause of the weight getting so bad. He was simply paying the price for his poor choices.

What was unfair was his coach's decision to ban him from the ice until he got back to the shape he was in at the finish of last season. He thought it was completely unnecessary, therefore unfair, to go to that extreme approach. Especially since he’d been making steady progress losing weight since he’d returned home, so it wasn’t like he hadn’t already been working at it when Victor showed up and declared his banishment. Sure, he hadn’t been as serious about his dieting as he should have been, but it wasn’t like he was eating everything he wanted.

He was an experienced competitor and he knew what it meant to be getting ready for a season.

Maybe he’d been more frustrated about the whole thing because of Victor’s approach and how it was completely different than his own.

The thing was, Victor didn’t need to worry about what he ate. Even before he showed up at the onsen, Yuuri – ever the fan – knew that Victor’s metabolism was perfect for an athlete. He burned through food quickly and so everything went to energy. He could eat way more than someone should at every meal, but could work it all back off in no time.

Yuuri wasn’t like that. His metabolism was slow, not converting as much of what he ate to be burned away and the rest just sticking around to make him just that little bit heavier. It worked in his favor for boosting his endurance, but when he’d spent a good five months with only minimal exercise and eating freely it meant he gained weight fast and it took a bit more work to lose it.

But this was really the first time he’d taken such an aggressive approach to cutting weight.

Back to this being about Victor’s approach.

Yuuri had never been off the ice for more than a few days at a time and this was day four. He missed it.

It wasn’t like his skating was too badly affected by being a bit overweight, thank you very much, Victor.

Yuuri stumbled to a halt from his easy gait at the vehement thought.

He wasn’t an aggressive person. He didn’t think harshly of other people, especially not Victor. It just wasn’t him. But, here he was just the same, mentally throwing accusations at the man that was doing him the biggest favor anyone had ever done for him.

What was wrong with him?

He let out a heavy sigh and thought that maybe he should call it quits for the night. He’d been just over halfway finished with his run, so it wasn’t like he was just giving up on the last of his daily workouts, but he really didn’t feel like he was in the best state of mind to be exercising. If he pushed himself too hard because of his frustration, it would throw him off enough that he’d be hurting for days to recover even as he continued working. He knew how his body worked and how to keep himself safe.

So, he’d use the walk home to figure things out before he had to face Victor again.

Maybe, more than anything, it was that Victor just kept asking him what his weight was at, seemingly focused on that more than what his physique was.

The thing was, Yuuri didn’t actually track his weight. He never had. It was just a number that would give him another thing to get anxious an obsessive about. There wasn’t even a scale in his home.

His family had never been ones to really care about something like weight. His parents were easygoing about pretty much everything and his sister thought it was pointless to care about something that changed by the hour. He wasn’t necessarily different, but his choice to become a competitive skater meant that he did have to have some measure of awareness, if only to keep his skater’s profile current. As long as he could skate with the same level of proficiency – though he preferred a gradual increase of skill – he didn’t think he was doing something wrong.

So, to have Victor ask him as soon as he walked into the onsen or the skating rink what his weight was and then be confused when Yuuri gave the vague answer of “yes” without knowing by how much, it was just frustrating.

_He’s only trying to help,_ Yuuri kept repeating to himself, but it only did so much good.

With a heavy sigh, Yuuri resumed his walk home, hoping he managed to find himself in a little bit better of a mood before he arrived. Victor tended to notice when he was genuinely not doing well and had no hesitation in calling Yuuri out on it, which wasn’t what Yuuri was used to. His family gave him his space to pursue his competitive career how he chose and everyone back in Detroit were too concerned with their own progress to really focus on what he did. That and he kept his distance from them, Phichit being the only exception.

Maybe he should just tell Victor that he didn’t track numbers, that he did better when it was something more abstract that he was aiming for. Specifics meant he had a fixed point to get anxious about and he didn’t need something else to obsess over, his scores during competition giving him enough numbers to worry about.

He just didn’t want to sound…weak. Not to Victor. Not to someone who had given up his own place in competition to coach Yuuri.

He was supposed to be a top ranked figure skater, not someone who caved under the pressure of a diet.

“Well, that didn’t do me any good,” Yuuri muttered dejectedly as he walked up to the entrance of his family’s onsen and slid the door open quietly, hoping to avoid notice and buy himself just a little bit more time to get back on track. Maybe if he could just get some time in his room with his headphones in, that would do the trick. Even when he wasn't in competition and listening to his performance pieces on repeat, he liked to imagine how he’d dance or skate to pretty much anything he listened to and that helped him calm down.

He’d successfully made it past the entryway and beyond the view of the dining area where he could hear his parents talking to customers. He couldn’t hear Minako so she likely wasn’t there – she wasn’t a quiet customer even before the alcohol gave her an excuse to be loud. And he had turned down the hall leading to his room…

Just to almost run into Victor as he was coming from his own room with Makkachin on his heels.

Startled at being face-to-face with Victor, who he still wasn’t used to being around, he let out a yelp and staggered back a step, then took in a deep calming breath just as Makkachin bounded past Victor excitedly to greet him with a few sloppy licks to his hand, Yuuri relieved that the dog hadn’t leapt on him like he sometimes did.

“Victor, I didn’t think you’d be back yet,” Yuuri said, immediately nervous for being caught off-guard, which he wanted to be able to chastise himself about right away but couldn’t while he was right in front of Victor.

Victor wasn’t helping by giving him one of those intense looks that didn’t match up to his usual jovial nature.

“You usually aren’t back this quickly from your run,” he observed. “Are you hurt?” he suddenly sounded worried and now Yuuri was going to get _more_ flustered because he didn’t want that.

“No, I’m fine. You don’t need to worry, I’m alright,” he rushed to say. Then he had to hold in a sigh at how obvious he’d just made it that something was off with him.

But maybe Victor would miss that. After all, he might seem to have uncanny insight into Yuuri, but he didn’t actually know him that well. A couple of days were not enough for someone to have insight into every facet of his personality.

“Oh,” Yuuri ignored the part of his brain that noticed that sounded a little disappointed. “Then your run went good?”

Yuuri gave Victor a wide smile, all in an attempt to placate him further. “Of course. I just decided that today would be a shorter distance. It’s good for you to have days where you don’t push as hard so that your body can recover before you go back to pushing it.” If not the actual reason, his logic was accurate. There was a reason he hadn’t had any major injuries and it was partly because he’d learned all he could to keep himself safe in his training. And him being at a heavier weight coming back to work was something he did have to be careful about.

Great, now he was explaining his excuses to himself to pass off as reasonable.

He mentally shook off his distraction and focused back on Victor, who at least seemed to be accepting of his reasoning. He wasn’t looking at Yuuri so cautiously anymore.

“Well, alright.” And just like that, his expression lit back up to its normal enthusiasm and he was asking, “Then you’re joining me now, right?”

“’Joining you?’ What are you doing?” Every once in a while, no matter how fluent Victor was in English, he didn’t explain himself very well.

Yuuri wondered if that was actually just a Victor thing, though, no matter what language he was speaking. It seemed like something within the realm of possibility that there wasn’t a spoken language that would allow Victor to accurately express himself at all times.

“Hot spring customers are fun. I spend my time in there with them before dinner and they tell stories and teach me Japanese.”

That was…completely expected and should have been what Yuuri knew was happening in the time he wasn’t there that Victor was. Victor was a genuinely personable guy who did like sharing stories and hearing them – Yuuri suspected for inspiration’s sake – so the onsen while people were cycling through for dinner was the perfect time to get his fix of interacting with people in. And Yuuri was usually gone for just over an hour on his run, and he got back in time for his own dinner, which Victor joined him for.

See, this was why Yuuri wasn’t actually a people-person: he wasn’t that great on putting things together if he didn’t actually see it. He missed a lot about people when it came to things he didn’t witness.

“Um, actually I was going to get caught up on messages that I’ve received since you got here. My Instagram has sort of blown up and I was recommended by some friends that I needed to show some activity there. It’s not a bad idea.” That had been Phichit’s advice in a text he’d sent him, but his friend had always thought he should be better about social media instead of leaving himself to be tagged by other skaters, the triplets, and Minako.

Victor didn’t seem bothered by the refusal, though. He just gave Yuuri a wide grin and moved forward to walk past Yuuri who stepped to the side with Makkachin following him instead of bouncing back to Victor. “Tell them you will be competing. Fans are happy to hear that.”

“Right,” Yuuri said without intending to do any such thing. He never announced his competitions; the pages of the competitions and the JSF site to some degree did that for him. Besides, it felt a bit premature to say anything when he hadn’t even started working on his programs. “I’ll be out for dinner. See you then,” he gave a habitual bow before he backed away and turned toward his room.

“Makkachin will keep you company. He was sad to miss going running with you,” Victor called after him and he glanced down to, indeed, see the poodle trotting along beside him. He couldn’t help the smile at the friendly dog that had taken to him so quickly and well. In some ways, Makkachin being around was helping him not be so sad about losing Vicchan.

When he got to his room, he left the door open enough that Makkachin could leave if he felt like it, but he just jumped up on his bed and laid out against the wall like he normally did when he was in Yuuri’s room.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and tossed it to the bed before changing out of his running clothes and into a loose t-shirt and shorts he wore around his home when he knew he wasn’t leaving again. He then grabbed his headphones, practically fell onto his bed on his back, plugged his headphones into his phone and opened his music player. He then slung his arms over his face and let out a sigh as he got to work losing himself in the beat of his favorite songs.

At some point, Makkachin rolled away from the wall and laid his head on his stomach and he automatically brought one hand down to scratch at his ears.

This was something familiar: relaxing for a bit at the end of the day, listening to music with the warmth of a dog at his side. It may have been quite a few years since it had been something he’d experienced regularly, Vicchan having to be left behind in Japan while he was in Detroit, but it was still familiar and that was a balm to his frayed nerves.

He needed to get back on the ice, he realized at some point. Skating was more than his profession, but was also his passion. The ice was the one place he felt like he could be himself most naturally. He wasn’t great with words, so he used skating to say the things he couldn’t express easily on his own. Not being allowed on the ice was getting to him and he might have to resort to sneaking out to the rink if Victor didn’t budge on that soon.

A hand tapped him on the underside of his arm still draped over his eyes and he jumped up, dislodging Makkachin, and he looked up to see Mari smirking down at him. Before he could say anything, she held up her phone and he saw that she’d snapped a picture of him.

And, knowing Mari, she’d show the picture to Minako, who would either post it to Instagram herself or would send it to Yuuko and the triplets would get their hands on it and share it.

He really didn’t get what the big deal was about sharing a pic of him just relaxing in bed, but that didn’t mean he was keen on having it out there. And it wouldn’t be the first time that had happened, not even the first since he got back to Japan. Phichit had been the culprit when he was in Detroit.

“Victor said you were doing some social media updates. This one’ll fit right in,” she deadpanned to him, though he could see how she was fighting a smile.

He felt his cheeks warm. “No, it won’t. Please don’t post that or show it to someone who will post it. I still haven’t shaken all that attention from the girls posting the video.”

“Probably because it was followed by the rumor of Victor coming here to coach you. Come on, dinner’s ready. He offered to come get you but I figured you’re still not keen on him getting used to just walking right into your room.”

His sister could be so weird: doing something just to tease him one minute and the following it up with being completely considerate.

“Right,” he settled on before he stood up with a stretch, pulling out his headphones and setting his phone on his desk and followed Mari out towards the dining area with Makkachin again following close behind him.

When they entered the dining area, a few tables occupied with friendly faces that Yuuri returned greetings to, Makkachin dashed past Yuuri toward his owner, snuggling up close to Victor, whose attention immediately shifted to returning his dog’s love with scratches and a few kisses to the top of his head. Yuuri smiled at the scene and then followed the dog to sit in his usual spot across the table from Victor.

His mom brought out the tray with his dinner and set it down in front of him, a healthy serving of cooked vegetables and rice noodles as was his usual dinner now. His dinner was just meant to hold him over to morning, where his breakfast and lunch were the ones made to fuel his intense workouts.

Again, he’d had to do this before so he knew better than to load up at all in the evening.

He waited for Victor’s tray to be brought out as he always did and just hoped that his coach hadn’t decided to indulge too much tonight. He just didn’t feel like watching Victor enjoy something he couldn’t eat right now.

But he was surprised when his mom brought out a tray that held exactly the same meal as Yuuri’s, the only difference being Victor’s held a little larger portion, which with Victor’s different metabolism made it pretty much identical to Yuuri’s.

Victor looked over from kissing at Makkachin’s snout and saw Yuuri’s reaction to the change in his meal, giving him a wide smile. “It looked good.”

Actually, it looked about as bland as food got, though it did taste better than it looked because his dad was amazing at seasoning it perfectly toward flavors Yuuri loved, making it that little bit easier to eat for weeks on end as he would be. Because he did better with diets when he restricted himself to only one or two options of dishes for each meal.

“It is,” Yuuri absently responded.

“Then let us dig in!” he announced before taking up his chopsticks and doing just that, giving his usual exclamation of “Vkusno!” And it sounded as genuine as it always was, not that Victor was hard to please when it came to food.

Yuuri started in on his own serving, the two eating in silence while other patrons chatted in the background with comments on what they’d put on TV.

Yuuri was nearly finished when he realized something that should have been a bit more obvious: Victor hadn’t asked him anything. Or at least, he hadn’t asked about any of the things he had over the past few days. No question about his weight or if he was getting rid of the love handles he’d accumulated. He didn’t ask him anything that had to do with what was keeping him off the ice.

And he was joining Yuuri in a meal neither one of them would choose when they had options not restricted by diet.

Victor was absent-minded by his own admission, but he seemed completely capable of figuring out that something was bothering Yuuri. And he had done something to show his support rather than talk to Yuuri about it, which sometimes just made it worse for Yuuri because it meant he was the center of attention.

Victor’s gesture of support meant all the more to Yuuri for its subtlety, because subtle wasn’t to Victor’s strength.

“Thanks, Victor,” Yuuri said before his nerves could catch up and bypass his gratitude.

Victor looked over to him and smiled. “I’m your coach. I’m supposed to help you any way I can.”

Victor lasted the next two days sharing in Yuuri’s diet, which was about four meals past what Yuuri had expected. But by then, his frustration had diminished, he was making progress, and getting closer to being back on the ice regardless, so it didn’t bother him.


	2. A Friend in Appearance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's not something Yuuri pays much attention to, his style, but what if he should?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am warming up to writing these guys, so that's the best time to work in another one of the characters, right? ;) Here's a little Yurio included.

“What are you doing, piggy?” Yurio’s voice speaking from just a few feet away made Yuuri jump, the comb he’d been fiddling with being thrown up and landing in the sink in front of him. He hadn’t heard the teen walk in.

“Yurio, I thought you were at the temple,” Yuuri said as he turned to face the teen.

The frown deepened on Yurio’s expression and Yuuri wanted to fidget at the unwavering glare. He swore, he was never going to get used to this guy’s intensity which bordered on aggression.

“Finished, now I’m back,” Yurio answered easily enough. “Your turn to answer.”

Yuuri sighed as he turned back toward the mirror. “I can’t figure out if I should get my hair cut or just let it grow out a bit more.” Yurio walked closer and stoop behind Yuuri, peering at him through his reflection.

“Seriously? What sort of problem is that? You’re such a loser!”

“I didn’t say it was a problem, just that I couldn’t decide.” Yuuri had tried for a bit more tolerant tone, but he knew it had come out a bit more curt than he usually spoke. He’d consider that an accomplishment.

“If I’m going to grow it out, I need to let it start now so it’ll be where it needs to be for the season.”

“Why bother changing? Looks don’t make you better skater.”

“Of course it doesn’t make me a better skater, but Yuuko and Minako were talking about how I keep my hair at this length because it’s where it stays out of my eyes and is easy to deal with. They were asking if I should think about appearance instead of convenience going into this season.”

He reached up and absently pulled on his bangs, straightening them out to hang as far down as they would go, coming to about halfway down the lens of his glasses. Then he used his hands to brush it all back like he did in competition, the look familiar.

Minako was the one getting a bit caught up in the idea of him growing it out a bit and keeping it loose when he skated, giving people just that one more thing to look at. “Hair is a thing for some people. They like watching how it’s made to move with the body,” she had explained her reasoning, pulling from her years as a dancing competitor.

Or she was just saying what she thought Yuuri would buy.

Yuuko had been more for him keeping to what he’d done for years. “He looks more mature when he combs it back like he does. And when his theme is something mature, like eros, that’s going to work in his favor.”

And she had a good point: he knew he looked younger when he left his hair alone, probably because he hadn’t changed the style since he was a kid. Convenience determined his decision up until now, but he was wondering if this was when he needed to go all in.

Some skaters were constantly changing their image.

And he really was going for this season being unlike any other he’d had before.

But, he really didn’t see the big deal.

And having his hair in his eyes while he skated was bound to be annoying, potentially distracting. He was used to not being able to see, actually he sort of enjoyed that part about not being able to skate with his glasses on, but this would be a different level of annoying.

“I guess I’ll ask Nishigori about it. He cares about stuff like that about as much as I do but his perspective is a bit different than mine.” He tended to know what Yuuri could actually pull off and wasn’t afraid to say it.

He was the reality check to Yuuko’s optimism while both of them cared deeply about Yuuri.

“Piggy can’t brush his hair without help. Loser,” Yurio declared as he turned and walked back out of the locker room.

“You asked,” Yuuri said distractedly, not actually realizing Yurio had left.

He went through a few more cycles of brushing his hair forward and then combing it back, using water at one point to get it to stay in both positions without his hands and he still wasn’t any closer to a decision. So, with one final sigh and shaking his hair out to get out any excess water and letting it settle in its usual fall around his face, he left the locker room and went toward the rink.

Victor would be on the ice now, if he was keeping to the schedule they’d all settled into over the past few days. After they’d gotten warmed up, Victor would spend an hour each with Yuuri and Yurio, mixing up who he worked with first while the other practiced on their own. Then, while they had time to themselves, usually to eat lunch or go through with one of Victor’s assignments – like sending Yurio to the temple to find his agape – Victor put in his own time practicing. The afternoon was a bit more varied, usually determined by their workouts and off-the-ice practice, but it would include some more time on the ice with Victor at some point. It was an intense training schedule that left both Yuris exhausted by the time they returned to the onsen for the night.

Coming in view of the rink, Victor was, indeed, getting some practice of his own in and Yurio was off to the left looking very uncomfortable as the triplets buzzed around him with Yuuko standing nearby and just being her kind self talking to the Russian. Yuuko’s English wasn’t nearly as strong as Yuuri’s, but neither was Yurio’s so the two ended up practicing together throughout the days. Yuuri was just glad to see Yuuko didn’t get the same rude treatment he did.

Not that Nishigori would tolerate that, but that they hadn’t had to in the first place was definitely preferred; it was a path-of-least-resistance thing to Yuuri. Nishigori could hold a grudge when he had a reason to and standing up for his wife was a good reason.

Yuuri took advantage of everyone’s focus being on something else and turned right, following the barrier around the rink to where it opened up a bit off to the side of the bleachers.

Just because he didn’t get eros didn’t mean he was going to stop trying to find something that helped him understand. Minako hadn’t encouraged him to sign up for every form of dance she should while throwing him in the classes he didn’t agree to for nothing.

He knew what it _should_ look like, it was just a matter of getting his body to display what he was supposed to.

He sat down as he dug through his duffel for the thin shoes he used for dancing. He’d started carrying them along with his skates since he was practicing off the ice as much as on it, doing everything he could to nail the choreography. He slipped the shoes on and decided against putting in his headphones; Yurio had already snuck up on him once that day.

Victor had music playing anyway, and that was enough for Yuuri at the moment. He could work as long as he had a rhythm.

So, he got to work, going through motions that he was having an easier time remembering the more he went through them. And with all the jumps in the second half, it was all that much easier to just work on the step sequence. And, after a few times having to push his glasses back up, he remembered to take them off since he wasn’t at Minako’s where he could check his positioning in a mirror, slipping them into his jacket pocket.

And he actually succeeded in getting absorbed in what he was doing. That’s what he loved about skating, and dancing to a slightly lesser degree: even as he worked at improving, he really could just lose himself to the flow of the music, let his mind wander aimlessly. This was the part of what he did that made it easy to compete despite his anxieties: he was good at it and he loved it more than anything. He understood the language of skating and, by extension, dancing. This was what told him all he needed to know about someone.

Because every single competitor could skate the exact same program, learn the same choreography to the same music, but no two would be the same. It all came down to what the program meant to them, what story they were able to tell based on who they were.

Once Yuuri found the source of his eros, he’d be able to skate the program in a way Victor couldn’t.

Just like Yurio’s agape would look different than what Yuuri’s interpretation would be.

Understanding all that meant nothing to being able to actually pull it off, though.

Yuuri overbalanced following that thought, staggering a few steps to keep from falling; he was on concrete and it wouldn’t be a kind landing. He then had to take quite a few deep breaths to not make a show of his frustration at letting himself throw himself off what had been a great run. He shouldn’t have let his mind wander _that_ much. He knew better.

He straightened up and looked over towards the rink to make sure that he was being ignored but flushed instantly when he turned to see the fuzzy outline of Victor leaning over the wall surrounding the rink, watching him closely.

At least it seemed like Yuuko and the triplets were still successfully distracting Yurio, so there was some relief in that.

“What are you doing, Yuuri?” Victor asked, even though he’d seen Yuuri practice like this before.

“Dancing the step sequence,” Yuuri answered quickly, unable to keep from sounding like he was defending himself. It was a basic training method that pretty much every skater he knew used to some extent.

He fished his glasses back out of his pocket and slid them onto his face, wanting to be able to see clearly whenever he was talking with Victor. It was bad enough that he _still_ wasn’t used to the man’s quirks and mannerisms and being able to see clearly helped Yuuri calm down just that little bit more.

“Sometimes it helps me to go through the choreography without skates on, lets me get a feel for the motions as a dance instead of a skating routine.” He rambled a bit since Victor was just watching him and he wasn’t sure what his coach was looking for from him.

“Many do that,” Victor acknowledged. “Is it helping?”

“Yeah, I guess. The step sequence is smoother.”

“Maybe, but the execution is still at the same level you’ve been at.” Yuuri was learning to count on Victor to call things exactly as they were with no curbing truth to spare hurt feelings. There were times it was like having his most severe self-evaluation put to words.

It wasn’t something he was used to at all and he was trying to keep it from getting him down.

Since Victor seemed like he was going to stick around, Yuuri walked over to him and crossed his arms on the divider, relaxing against it just off to Victor’s left.

“If you weren’t distracted, it might work better,” Victor said once Yuuri was positioned.

“I’m just working some things out. Nothing big, just thinking about what I can do.”

“About what?”

Yuuri hesitated for a second before he remembered that Victor was a skater who had changed his style semi-regularly, adapting to fit his programs. He might actually be the better person to talk to about if something as minor as a haircut was as big of a deal as Yuuri was making it out to be.

He really needed to stop listening to Minako outside her dance studio.

“Minako and Yuuko were talking about whether or not I should let my hair grow out a little and I was considering it.”

“Do you want to?” Victor asked.

Yuuri shrugged and his posture sunk a little. “I don’t know. I’ve never really thought about it. The most thought I give stuff like that is when I’m picking costumes. I don’t think it matters all that much.”

Victor turned around to face the same way as Yuuri, leaning back and resting on his elbows. “Why does it not matter? It’s you.”

Yuuri knew he blushed at that, just the way that Victor said something like that so easily flustered Yuuri to no end. What was he supposed to think about things like that being said to him?

“It’s just hair. It’s not like it’s keeping at a weight that doesn’t affect my ability to do jumps. As long as it stays out of my way, why does it matter? And I comb it back when I’m performing anyway, so would it make a difference?”

Victor looked over his shoulder to Yuuri and grinned. “Sounds like you already decided. So, no problem.”

And just like that, Victor skated away and Yuuri was left to realize that, yes, he had already decided against it. He was fine keeping the same style he’d had for years. Maybe some other time he’d find something else that worked for him, but right now he alright.

Though, as he watched Victor building up speed to practice some spins, Yuuri came to a realization: did Victor just pull off being a good coach?

So much of what Victor did with Yuuri – for example, how he’d handled making sure Yuuri dropped his weight back down to competition standards – wasn’t what Yuuri really considered great coaching. Sure, he hadn’t had a wide variety of coaches, but they had been ones to put things a bit gentler than Victor did. They didn’t coddle Yuuri, but they made sure to offer corrections in a way that didn’t make his already harsh self-evaluations even worse.

Victor said things as they were, his standards were ridiculously high, and he didn’t seem to have the same concept of different things being difficult for different people. And Yuuri still wasn’t sure if that made for a good coach for him or not.

It didn’t change that Yuuri still wanted Victor there; he didn’t think there was anything that could make him not want Victor there because he needed something to change if he wanted this year to be different.

He was just pretty sure that change didn’t need to be his hair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, not much interaction, but next chapter will have some more. I'm still getting the hang of these guys and playing it a bit close while I have the help of staying canon compliant.  
> Thank you for the kudos and comments. Hope you enjoy and see you next time!


	3. A Friend in Language

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They speak a common language, but it isn't their first one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I messed myself up and wrote a good chunk of the chapter, then stepped away from it for a few days and lost the thread of where I was going with it. Oops. I'm still okay with the chapter though or I wouldn't post it. Hope you enjoy!

It was a fascination for Yuuri, listening to people speaking in a language he didn’t understand. Something about hearing things being said that didn’t make sense to him but still held just as much meaning as anything he said was interesting to him.

It was one of the reasons he’d started learning English when he was a kid. The other part being that when he first started getting interested in figure skating, more interviews were translated to English than Japanese and more a good percentage of the skaters spoke English. And with his parents speaking a little English, he’d already gotten started, he just worked harder at becoming fluent. Spending five years in America meant he’d even done a reasonable job of working out the strength of his accent.

It was why he’d happily learned Thai from Phichit, taking it on a trade by helping his friend work on his English; Phichit hadn’t been nearly as fluent in English when he’d moved to Detroit and had asked for all the help he could get. So, while he didn’t get much chance to practice now, he’d gotten enough with Phichit that he was fluent with Thai as his third language.

Then there was Italian, which he got by with from what he picked up from Celestino. His previous coach hadn’t actually taught him any, remaining focused on his skating, but his exclamations in Italian were always followed by Yuuri looking up what he’d said and translating on his own. And he had a pretty good memory for remembering what he looked up so it caught on. He never really bothered speaking it, the language not sounding as right coming from him and his Japanese origins, but he still got by.

If he was a bit better about learning from books – he picked up a language best by hearing it – he would learn more than he did, but currently he was content with what he’d learned already.

Well, mostly content.

“How hard is it to learn Russian?” he asked Victor, who looked up from where he’d been talking to Makkachin in playful Russian as the dog flopped over his owner’s lap after he’d finished eating breakfast.

It had been on Yuuri’s mind since Yurio had been there learning his routine and the two would mostly converse in Russian. But it hadn’t been the time to bring it up when he’d been working to get his own routine nailed for the showdown between himself and Yurio. But now that there was a bit of leisure as he worked with Victor on his Free Skate, there was more opportunity. But without Yurio there, Victor didn’t speak much in Russian so it had slipped Yuuri’s mind to ask.

“I guess not as hard as people think,” Victor replied slowly, likely not seeing why Yuuri had suddenly asked. “Did you want to learn?”

Yuuri shrugged as he leaned forward, resting his elbow on the table and his chin in his hand, thinking about it a bit deeper.

Makkachin responded to that and rolled out of Victor’s lap to come nuzzle at Yuuri’s hand until he started petting the dog’s head.

Victor pouted at being abandoned by his dog, the fact that Makkachin had already spent the night with Yuuri instead of him likely contributing to his disappointment. But Makkachin sleeping with Yuuri happened about half the time now while he spent the day following Victor.

Makkachin came up behind Yuuri and rested his snout on Yuuri’s shoulder, then sat and plopped his head on Yuuri’s leg, looking up at him in a way that Yuuri couldn’t help but rest one hand on the fluffy head and scratch. He heard the resulting thudding of Makkachin’s tail wagging against the floor and he smiled. The dog was completely spoiled by all the attention he could ever want.

Remembering Victor had asked him a question, he focused back on the conversation he had started. “I wouldn’t mind learning. I mean, you’ve got Mom and Dad’s customers teaching you Japanese.”

“You said to check what they teach me with you,” Victor pointed out.

“Well, yeah, but that’s because some of them are drunk when they’re here and I don’t want you getting taught the wrong thing. There’s a few of the regulars that be the kind to teach the foreigner the wrong words; they like that sort of harmless prank.”

Yuuri knew he would just about die of embarrassment if he’d ended up being on the receiving end of a prank like that so didn’t want that happening to Victor. Just because Victor didn’t experience the same intensity of embarrassment as Yuuri didn’t mean he should go through that.

Victor gave him a wide smile in reply. “You’re such a kind person, Yuuri!” he exclaimed a bit louder than Yuuri expected, startling him a little. Victor got excited about the strangest things sometimes. “But we talk fine in English.”

“I know we do. And I don’t mean I need to know Russian to understand you or vice versa with you and Japanese.”

Yuuri was starting to get flustered by not really knowing where he’d been going with this. He’d just spoken his thoughts randomly and now he had to recover doing so. He really wasn’t a morning person and letting his mouth ramble with his thoughts was the reason he tried not to talk in the mornings. He wasn’t fond of trying to find an answer for what he said while lost in thought.

Victor was still smiling at him, his excitement apparently not deterred by Yuuri’s attempts not to ramble. “It probably wouldn’t be too hard for you since you already know two languages. I’ve heard each new language is easier to learn.”

“Three,” Yuuri corrected absently.

“What?”

“Oh, I know three. I learned Thai while I was living in Detroit.”

Victor’s eyes lit up even more. “Wow, I didn’t know that! I bet you’d learn Russian in no time, no matter how different it is from Japanese and English. I bet you’d have it down by the time I got good at Japanese, no matter that I got a head start learning.”

“I doubt that,” Yuuri gave Victor a small smile at the man getting carried away at the concept of Yuuri learning his native language with any ease.

“We should try! We’ve always got time during breakfast and dinner. We can use it to teach each other. That way you can just teach me Japanese instead of needing to worry if someone is teaching be bad Japanese. And imagine Yurio’s surprise when we see him again and you were able to talk to him in Russian.”

“Well, he already insults me in Russian. It would be a nice change to know exactly what he’s calling me.” Not that Yuuri couldn’t guess what the young Russian was saying about him based on context alone.

He’d gotten used to quite a bit of things in the time Yurio had stayed with them at the onsen. Though, to be fair, he’d been getting used to all sorts of things since Victor came to Hasetsu that it had been relatively easy to get accustomed to Yurio’s habits.

And, all things considered, while competing Yuuri was surrounded with some pretty extreme people in his fellow competitors.

“We can start tonight. We’ll have fun learning. And it’s good for practice to have something else to distract you when you aren’t practicing. Something that doesn’t affect you when on the ice.”

Yuuri knew that. He’d had two reasons for going to America: to train with Celestino and to go to school. And school had always made for a good way to focus himself when he was getting to caught up in his head about his skating.

Well, that and he’d wanted a few more options to be available to him when he retired from skating since he’d never thought of coaching as being a potential pursuit for him.

But this was an easy enough answer. “Sure, I guess that works out. We can always skip it if we’ve got work to do.”

“Right, we’ll start tonight. I’m happy to teach you!”

Yuuri smiled again at Victor as the man started rambling about what he’d teach him on their first night of learning, slipping into Russian every once in a while. Yuuri listened absently, turning his attention to Makkachin and giving the poodle some more attention before he was left to himself for a good portion of the day. The dog was as happy as usual for any attention and panted in Yuuri’s face as his tail started thumping against the floor again.

He was looking forward to learning something from Victor that had nothing to do with skating, to learn something just for the sake of learning what he was interested in.

Things like that mattered, or so he was told. His friends made a point of saying things like that to him all the time: that he needed to pursue what he wanted. It didn’t matter if that was a gold medal or a degree or becoming friends with someone, it was good for him to actually go after what he wanted.

He was starting to actually understand why they told him that. The more he accomplished, the easier it would be to try for the next thing.

And it was getting easier to know what he wanted with clarity. He figured it was only a matter of time before it was easy to actually go after what he wanted.

Hopefully, with Victor’s help, it would happen just that little bit sooner.

He felt like it might.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Multi-lingual people are awesome! As someone whose second language is American Sign Language and not a spoken one because I'm kinesthetic and really not auditory, people learning more than one language is an easy way to awe me. Deepest respect to all of you.

**Author's Note:**

> I only did one editing read-through so hopefully I caught most of the mistakes. Like I said, still getting a feel for the characters, especially Victor because his personality is quite a ways outside my norm. But I'm having fun following inspiration on this one and look forward to continuing working with these guys.  
> Kudos and comments are very much appreciated.  
> Thank you so much for reading and I will see you next chapter.


End file.
